What Would You Call With?

While I was multi-tabling 4 NLHE SnG's yesterday at Full Tilt and interesting hand played out. Here is some of the background:

I am just under the starting stack of 1500 at this table because I have been folding nearly all my hands. Anyone who is observant would see this and peg me as a tight player. I haven't shown anything to define whether I am passive or aggressive. In the cut-off I am dealt AQ and bring it in for a standard 3X raise. The small blind raise back pot. I think about it for a second and realize that there are two other big stacks at this table and if I have any chance to compete in this SnG this is going to be as good a time as any. I push and my opponent calls. Before you read on, think about what my opponent has and venture a guess.

HIGHLIGHT THIS AREA --->Pocket 3's! <--- TO SEE THE RESULT. Identifying a bad play is almost as valuable as performing a good one so I'm spending a lot more time analyzing some of the more interesting hands that I come up against. There are some key points that I want to outline that I feel are important:

• I was the one who pushed all-in. It's one thing to push all-in but it's another to call an all-in, especially pre-flop. Since I push all-in I can add some fold equity to my hand giving me the edge versus a small pair.
  
• With my hand I'm only worried about 4 other hands. Aces, Kings, Queens and Ace-King. With every other hand out there I am either a coin flip or I'm dominating them.
• My image, even though it doesn't really matter at these limits, is that of a very tight player, and with the push all-in I can now be classified as Tight-Aggressive.
• My opponent is at best, 50/50, but it's just as likely that they are dominated. Even though I was only afraid of four hands there is only one hand I can hold (deuces) where my opponent can be confident.

My opponent still called, even though they had all these factors against them. We both still had playable stacks and there was still plenty of time to build a stack in a better situation. I consider this call to be a very bad play, one I don't think I would make if I was in the same situation. What I notice, at every stake I play at, is that once a person places chips into the pot, they put a lot more into the pot to try to get them back. This ends up being a huge leak in their game.

By the tone of the post many would think that I lost the hand. They would be wrong. I won the hand with a straight but that really doesn't matter. I feel that I still made the right play and even if the pot got pushed to my opponent I would still feel good about pushing all-in.

Wow, Really, Calling All In With That?

POKERSTARS GAME #16057183014: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.01/$0.02) - 2008/03/17 - 21:45:24 (ET)
Table 'Weringia V' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: Pecek ($1.05 in chips)
Seat 3: jonshadow ($5.35 in chips)
Seat 4: Doctor-Lay ($5.96 in chips)
Seat 6: poste2006 ($4.50 in chips)
FranckRock will be allowed to play after the button
poste2006: posts small blind $0.01
Pecek: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jonshadow [Kh Ac]
jonshadow: raises $0.04 to $0.06
Doctor-Lay: folds
poste2006: calls $0.05
Nundrspock joins the table at seat #1
Pecek: raises $0.99 to $1.05 and is all-in
jonshadow: raises $4.30 to $5.35 and is all-in
poste2006: folds
*** FLOP *** [Jd 8h Kc]
*** TURN *** [Jd 8h Kc] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 8h Kc Jh] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Pecek: shows [7c 9s] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
jonshadow: mucks hand
Pecek collected $2.06 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2.16 | Rake $0.10
Board [Jd 8h Kc Jh Td]
Seat 2: Pecek (big blind) showed [7c 9s] and won ($2.06) with a straight, Seven to Jack
Seat 3: jonshadow mucked [Kh Ac]
Seat 4: Doctor-Lay (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: poste2006 (small blind) folded before Flop


This player was pushing on a lot of hands, pre and post flop. I figured him for a weak ace but I was very surprised when I saw that he had called that raise with 79. Sure he caught his 4-outer on the river to beat me but I know that in the long run I'm taking all his money.

Learning to Play a New Style

Over the past week it looks like I have snapped out of the slump that had eaten away a lot of my February profits. I have cashed in around half of my sit and go's earned enough to book a slight profit for the week.

In addition to the SnG's I have also been flirting with playing a new style at the cash games. The limits are low but I'm finding that I am enjoying this new style. In the past I have always thought of myself as a tight, aggressive player. As a result of watching some Cardrunner videos I am opening up my starting requirements and becoming a bit looser. I am raising almost every pot that I enter and breaking even. I'm still making two mistakes that I will most likely resolve in short time.

The first mistake is that I'm over-aggressive with a pre-flop raiser when I have a strong hand. I should be playing my strong hands with a little more deception. Playing these hands fast is a by-product of taking some bad beats and trying to prevent that. As I play in more cash games this fear should be reduced.

The second mistake is that I try pushing players off hands too often. I have to remember that I'm playing low-limits and as such I should just focus on playing ABC poker, with a more loose aggressive style. In the past I used to get frustrated by the loose aggressive players that raise so many hands but I'm discovering that if it's done in the right situation, and in good position it can be a formidable weapon at any limit.

A Bad Run...

For the past week I have been having a bad run during my Sit and Go's, both in Hold' Em and in PLO8. I haven't really seen much reason for the bad run. A bad run will always be a mixture of bad cards, bad luck, and even some bad play. I have been guilty of all of three even though I feel the luck has been the main factor going against me.

I have played in some turbo tournaments and that is something that I should be staying away from. The blinds move up too quickly in my opinion and even though the tournament concludes faster, it also becomes a bit of a luck-fest.

On the flip side I multi-tabled a few Hold' Em NL tables and did very well. I played a style of poker that is a bit foreign to me after watching a CardRunners video. The video focused on playing aggressively in position and smartly out of position. I usually play tight, only raising with premium hands but watching these videos showed me that most players, even in the lower stakes don't want to call with weak hands against players who show aggression pre-flop. I raised nearly every hand that I got involved with and never stopped betting until I was shown some resistance. The nice thing was, even if someone played back at me I'd say I was winning half the time so I was able to take some pots and show down some good hands. For me one of the amazing things two of my more powerful hands (Jacks and Ace Ten) were hands I was able to easily release based on my read of my opponents. I really felt comfortable during these sessions.

Time to get back to the tables to see if the bad run is over.

Slow and Steady...

Tonight I played in one 9 person PLO8 Sit and Go. From the start of the match the action was fast and furious. Nearly half the table was eliminated during the first blind level. My strategy at this point was simple, let everyone bust each other out while I play only premium hands. Unfortunatly, once play got to five handed things slowed down considerably. There was almost no pre-flop raising and most pots were won on the flop. After playing Omaha for the last few weeks this turn of events was certainly puzzling.

As the blinds continued to increase pots continued to get pushed to the bettor and raiser. Only one of my pre-flop raises were ever contested and for several levels I was the only player making raises pre-flop. We got to the break with the chips pretty evenly distributed. I was the short-stack once we got 5 handed and stayed that way until the money bubble burst. It took almost 70 minutes to get to the money. That kind of timing is normal in a 18 person SnG but pretty rare in a 9 person match.

When the dust settled I ended up getting runner-up in the match. I'm happy with the result and how I played since I didn't over-value my hands and didn't chase low draws. Considering my chip stacks compared to everyone else for an hour of the match I'm happy with how things turned out.

Full Tilt Doesn't Make It Easy

I played several Sit and Go's tonight and my evening started off being very rough. It seemed to be like a continuation from the previous day and by bankroll was taking another significant hit, but then, when all seemed to be lost, I picked up the chip-lead in two different SnG's at the same time.

Moving back and forth during a see-saw battle I was able to earn the runner-up spot in both matches. These cashes pushed my bankroll and evening into a profitable one. I still saw plenty of bad luck (for me) or good luck (for them), however you want to look at it. I found it tough because it seemed like when I was aggressive, I trapped myself with powerful hands. On the flip side, when I was being passive the hands never seemed to break my way.

When all was said and done things went ok. It's important to look at how hands and tournaments are played and in the long run the results will speak for themselves. It's tough when you put the money in as a favorite and then see the pot get pushed to your opponent. The main thing is to stay focused and continue to try to keep your composure as you push on. Time will reward strong play.

A Very Tough Day On The Virtual Felt

Today has been one of the worst days of poker that I have had on Full Tilt in quite a long time. I usually have to suffer through a bad beat or a foolish mistake every once and a while but I have had some brutal beats during the Sit and Go's today. The worst part is that most of them are happening on the money bubble so I'm investing lots of time into the match and then walking away in frustration.

When these kinds of sessions happen with some players they will buy into larger games trying to build up their bankroll. I'm the opposite. I'll play at a lower limit so that if my emotions start getting involved I won't have as much cash up for grabs.

In terms of money this day isn't a big deal at all. My overall roll is only down 2% so it's not as though it's painful financially, it just gets frustrating when you get un-drawn, you get unlucky, and when you play badly. Hopefully the streak is short lived.

Playing Well At Full Tilt, Party, Not So Much

I haven't had much success at Party since receiving my bonus. I was playing a bit out of my bankroll with their Sit and Go's, the SnG's took forever to fill up and even though I was always in contention of cashing the blinds seemed to get up to high late in the SnG. I also played a little Pot Limit Omaha High Low cash games. These usually never went very well. I would build up my stack then suffer a bad beat and that would clear out a lot of hard work. I'm glad I was able to play more at the site, and that it was technically free but now that my bonus has been used up I'm back to playing full time at Full Tilt where I have been playing very well. My success is coming primarily in PLO8 9 and 18 person Sit and Go's. I guess my style of play is more successful in PLO8 tournaments rather then cash games.